A week on the Focus desk: Day 2

Guest blogger Hannah Brown writes about her second day of work experience here at Estates Gazette

Today, Stacey and I went to Gloucester to interview people about the regeneration of the city.

First we headed to Gloucester Quays designer outlet which opened in May and met Franco Muccini, centre director. It was a complicated interview to understand with talk of “turnover rents” and “gross profit” though I was able to understand a little of what was said and was impressed by the speed in which Stacey wrote notes (Stacey: whether I can read them is another matter).

Then we met Alder King’s John Hawkins and the conversation was easier to understand. In my opinion he was very optimistic about the future.

Stacey and I then had to decide between one of the two cafes in the shopping centre for lunch after which we had time to take some pictures and video clips for a future post.

We then met Chris Foley who works for SWRDA. He told us about some of the future projects and some of the projects which have had to be put on hold.

After that we headed back to the small Gloucester train station only to find that our direct train had been cancelled and we now had to travel back via Bristol.

I greatly enjoyed my trip, it was interesting to see that the interviews were not so much questions and answers but the flowing conversation; it was extremely fascinating listening to the different opinions of each person. It was also good to find that my research on Gloucester helped me to understand what was being said.

About Stacey Meadwell

Journalist on EG's regional team for 15 years looking after all our regional features, EG London, the Focus blog, regional receptions and awards. Always on the look out for the next hot topic, profile or case study so get in touch if you have an idea egfeatures@estatesgazette.com